Reading list for 2009 (enough with the resolutions already)

As you may remember, we will be moving in spring 2010 and we want to trim down the number of boxes of stuff to be moved. A good place to start is books, we own a lot. And I mean, a lot.
One way to go about it, is stop buying new books and reading the ones we have and didn’t get to yet. Another is to bookmooch and a third is to give books away. We’ll do all these.
As I went through the shelves (books are standing in double rows) to fill a box to go in the attic, to make room for the books lying around elsewhere, I created a little “books on reserve” shelf (Handapparat aus der Uni), with books I really need to get to and intend to read this year.

Here is the complete list:
Macolm Gladwell – Outliers
Carlos Ruiz Zafón – Shadows of the Wind
Wallace Stegner – Crossing to Safety
John Irving – Until I Find You
Siri Hustvedt – Sorrows of an American
Dan&Chip Heath – Made to Stick
Paul Auster – Book of Illusions
Richard Powers – The Time of Our Singing
Jasper Fforde – Eyre Affair
Joseph Jaffe – Join the Conversation
W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne – Blue Ocean Strategy
David Foster Wallace – Infinte Jest
Siri Hustvest – Enchantment of Lily Dahl
Hermann Scheer – Energie Autonomie
Dan Tapscott – Wikinomics
Sten Nadolny – Discovery of Slowliness (*)
Ken Follett – Pillars of the Earth
Charles Frazier – Thirteen Moons
Nick Hornby – Slam
Jonathon Franzen – The Corrections (*)
McCarthy – McCarthy’s Bar
Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird (*)
Jonathan Safran Foer – Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Paul Auster – Oracle Night (*)
Naomi Klein – Shock Doctrin
*=reread

That’s 23 books, more than two weeks per book which should be manageable. The number of business books seems low, but you can add to that 1-2 books I will still get for Christmas and 1-2 I intend to pick-up as the year progresses, depending of what comes out and my way. And course Lee Child – Nothing to Lose once that comes out as paperback.
The Irving tome, Shock Doctrine and Infinite Jest look scary thick, but what’s a guy to do.

However, I have finally started to read Stephen D. Frank’s The Evelyn Wood Seven-Day Speed Reading and Learning Programm, a book I had lying around for years. Last night’s speed was 580 words per minute, faster than average they say, but they are striving for at least 1.500 words per minute. That sounds scary too.

Have a great 2009!